


The Challenge: Feelings

by Stormfet



Category: The Challenge (TV)
Genre: Emotional Conversation, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:00:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24707221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormfet/pseuds/Stormfet
Summary: A missing scene between episode 8 and episode 9 of the Challenge: Rivals in which Cara Maria and Laurel have a conversation about their feelings.
Relationships: Cara Maria Sorbello/Laurel Stucky
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	The Challenge: Feelings

“Okay, Kenny, thank you for coming, but please, get the fuck out now,” Laurel said. Kenny nodded. Some of the vitriol had left her voice, but they needed a moment together. He left the room, the door closing firmly shut. Laurel heard a sob from behind her and turned to face Cara Maria one more time, mascara smeared across her face, teary eyes looking up at her, still covered in Wes’ wretched cola. She may have been a mess, but she was still beautiful. Laurel sighed.

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up,” Lauren said.

“Don’t dump cola on Wes, okay?” Cara Maria said as Laurel helped her get up.

“There’s no telling what I’m gonna do once you’re asleep,” Laurel said, grabbing a change of clothes from Cara Maria’s suitcase as they stepped into the bathroom.

“No, don’t be mean back,” Cara Maria said as she stripped her shirt and shorts off, the sticky smell of the cola still coating her back as she stepped into the shower. Laurel leaned against the sink, slamming her fist into her hand.

“It’s not fucking fair!” Laurel said. “They all hate us, Wes and Paula and Tyler and Mandi. I don’t get it. They could have had a chance to take us out if Jenn had the balls to go in against us. But instead they send in Jonna and Jasmine...”

Cara Maria let out a sob. “They didn’t deserve it!”

“I know!” Laurel said, pacing now. “They were doing so well! Jasmine had come so far. God, if only I had been able to shoot you down from those stupid ropes...”

Cara Maria poked her head out of the shower, the cola rinsed out, droplets of water running down her neck. Laurel's eyes met the ceiling. “You can’t control everything, Laurel. As much as you’d like to, you can’t control everything. Sometimes you gotta pick your battles, and sometimes if that means Wes dumps cola down your back...”

Laurel spun around and slammed her arm into the wall of the bathroom. “Ow,” she said, rubbing her knuckles. Cara Maria laughed. “Shut up,” Laurel said. 

“Sorry,” Cara Maria said, before disappearing back into the shower.

“We’re so close,” Laurel said. “I just want to win so I can rub it in Jenn’s stupid face. Jenn and Paula...Paula shouldn’t have laughed at you like that.”

“They’re mean girls,” Cara Maria said, stepping out of the shower wearing absolutely nothing. Laurel gulped and looked away, handing a towel to Cara Maria as she wrapped it around herself, dabbing the water out of her red hair. “I know, I’ve dealt with a lot of mean girls. I’ve burned a lot of bridges. Hell, sometimes I was a bit of a mean girl myself...”

“Just because you were doesn’t mean you can’t change,” Laurel said. “Hell, look how far we’ve come...”

“Yeah, you were a bit of a mean girl yourself, Laurel,” Cara Maria said. 

Laurel looked down. “You know when I compete I’m a bitch. I always have been. Sometimes when you’re tall and strong people don’t like that. Especially when you know what you want. They see you as a threat...”

“You are a threat, are you kidding me, Laurel Stucky?” Cara Maria asked as she set the towel down, her hair dabbed dry, and leaned against the sink, placing her hand over Laurel’s. “You’ve carried our team from the beginning. You’re a strategist and you’re strong...”

“You’re smart as hell too,” Laurel said. “And strong as fuck. I need someone to spray with a fire hose as much as someone needs to be sprayed.”

Cara Maria laughed again, sending a chill shiver down Laurel’s spine. “Yeah, still won’t forgive you for spraying me with a firehose for 18 minutes straight.”

“Can I make it up to you?” Laurel asked. 

“You already have,” Cara Maria said, meeting Laurel’s eyes. “You have my back. I didn’t think you did at first, you left me out to dry. Hey, we may be the team that’s DQ’d more than anyone, but we’ve also made it out of the jungle more than anyone.”

“Fuck Mandi and Jenn,” Laurel said. “They haven’t even been in the jungle once.”

“I’d like to see them take us,” Cara Maria said, flexing. Despite her small stature, the muscles on her arm jumped out. You had to be at least a little ripped to make it this far in the Challenge. Laurel squeezed her bicep.

“I dunno,” she said jokingly. “You could use a little more tricep work.”

“Oh, shut up, Ms. Jock,” Cara Maria said, planting a hand against Laurel’s nose and pushing her away. Laurel laughed. 

“Fuck these clothes,” Cara Maria said to the pile of cola-soaked clothing. “Fuck this challenge. We’ve gotta show the other teams that when you have each other’s backs you can do anything. That much we can do.”

“It’s weird,” Laurel said as they stepped back into the bedroom, Leroy passed the fuck out on the second bed. “Obviously you’ve been on the Challenge before, and so have I. When you’re alone, when you’re individual, you get to control everything. But when you have a partner you have to work with, to invest in...it changes the game completely. I can’t quite be the bitch I usually am. I have someone to work with.”

Cara Maria nodded. “I’ve definitely made choices in the past that have completely fucked my trajectory, messed me up when they change up the pairings or made me work with someone I had completely burned bridges with. But for the first time, I feel like I actually have someone on my back.”

“Yeah, let’s not mess this up,” Laurel said, sitting on Cara Maria’s bed and fiddling with the blanket. Cara Maria dropped her towel to change and Laurel looked anywhere but at her partner. “We’ve got a good thing going, babe. We’re both strong, we’re both smart as hell. I’d like to see Wes confronted with a puzzle.”

Cara Maria snorted. “If there’s one thing we can take it’s a fucking puzzle,” she said. Laurel picked up a pillow and punched it twice.

“As much as it sucked to beat Jasmine and Jonna, hey...we fucking smashed them,” Laurel said, tossing the pillow down on the bed.

“What happens next time we’re on the Challenge as individuals?” Cara Maria asked, her head poking through her shirt.

“We remember it’s a game,” Laurel said. 

“It’s so hard sometimes,” Cara Maria said, sitting on the bed and putting her head on Laurel’s shoulder. Laurel's body tensed as she felt Cara Maria press against her. “To remember that. It becomes your whole life after a while.”

Laurel took a deep breath and laced her fingers through Cara Maria’s. “The game is the game,” she said. “The connection is real.”

Cara Maria looked up at Laurel, brown eyes meeting blue. Laurel swallowed. Suddenly everything she had said...looking out for each other’s backs, sticking together became very, very real. Laurel tensed for a moment as she felt Cara Maria’s hand on the back of her neck, felt Cara Maria’s warm breath on her lips. She was so close now.

“It’s real,” Laurel repeated softly, her hand on Cara Maria’s cheek, feeling her soft skin against her fingers as she pulled her forward gently, their lips meeting, gentle at first, and then stronger as they kissed and kissed, Laurel’s fingers tangling into Cara Maria’s red hair, Cara Maria’s arm wrapping around her waist, pulling her closer. 

Eventually they broke apart, panting slightly, the energy between them electric and terrifying at once. They grinned at each other, before laughing softly. Cara Maria pulled Laurel in for a hug, her fingers clutching at Laurel’s back, her head going into Laurel’s neck. 

“Stay with me, please,” she said. Laurel nodded, reaching up to turn the light off. 

In the darkness they crawled under the blanket together, Cara Maria curling into Laurel, passing out nearly instantly, feeling safe for the first time since they arrived in Buenos Aires. Laurel lay awake, chin resting on Cara Maria's head, listening to her breath grow deeper until she was sure she was asleep. Even after that she lay with her, listening in the dark to her partner sleep soundly.

**Author's Note:**

> We all know what happens next, which is Laurel gets out of bed, tries to dump cola on Wes and proceeds to yell at Paula until she cries. Then after that she crawls back into bed with Cara Maria and sleeps very soundly and they cuddle when they wake up in the morning. Thank u for coming to my ted talk. 
> 
> Thank u for reading yet another obscure fanfiction that I wrote. I love opening new character relationship tags I'm great at it.


End file.
